The first trailer for the Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot has finally arrived. Directed by jonathan Liebesman, this new adaptation of the beloved heroes in a half shell is flashy and big, but wants to ensure fans of the old guard not to freak out. Starring Will Arnett and Megan Fox, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be out in theaters on August 8, and you can watch the first trailer after the jump.

First thing’s first, I still cannot get over that I graduate high school with the actor portraying Leonardo (Pete Ploszek). It just blows my mind because from what I can remember he was involved with sports and school and never in the arts or acting. The rest of the turtles are pretty unknown to the mainstream as well and it will be interesting to see how much personality they will bring to the lean mean and green fighting machines.

For those skeptics out there, I highly encourage that you watch the trailer. I don’t think it will upset fans, but rather pique their interest; I know I am curious now (I didn’t even put it on my most anticipated movies of 2014 list). This is a pretty solid set up to a bigger trailer and works well as the first tease. I would assume we’ll get more details once WonderCon or Comic-Con roll around.

A few things to notice that may throw off fans: the origins of the Turtles are slightly different and the lab is now TCRI instead of TGRI. With any reboot I would expect some things to change, and I’m glad they didn’t go the alien route like originally rumored. However, now that we’ve learned a little bit of the story, I am not really bothered by The Shredder’s (William Fichtner) involvement in the creation of the Turtles. But who is April O’Neil’s (Megan Fox) father, could it be Master Splinter (Danny Woodburn) who possibly transformed when he helped Shredder?

The Turtle designs are a bit jarring, the faces specifically. When Michelangelo (Noel Fisher) reveals his face, I was a bit taken aback by how strange it looked. It’s what nightmares are made of. I read that his face looked like green alien babies, but I wasn’t expecting that it to be that extreme. Leonardo does look pretty good, and I like the touch of his NYC button on getup. Based on the one action set piece, it should be interesting to see how crazy things will get now that technology has developed so much since 1990 when the original film released.

Here is the official plot synopsis courtesy of CBM Trailers where the trailer debuted:

The city needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians. The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must work with fearless reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox) and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick (Will Arnett) to save the city and unravel Shredder’s diabolical plan.

Also starring in TMNT is Alan Ritchson as Raphael, Jeremy Howard as Donatello, and Whoopi Goldberg as Bernadette Thompson.

What do you think of the new Turtle designs now that they have been made officially public? Are you anticipating this film to be any good? Does it bother you that April’s hair is not red?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is set to arrive in theaters on August 8, 2014.